For a number of reasons, essays are the most commonly used written genre in schools. Despite the dread many students feel for the word "essay", they are suprisingly straightforward to write. The habits that students need to value in order to improve their essay writing skills are:
There are several common forms of essays, and some pointers for these will be outlined below. To begin, however, it is important to outline some of the basic features that will help students to make a start in their writing.
One very important point to remember is that essays are not narratives. Where successful narratives work by strategically withholding information from the reader, essays work through clear, unambigious language that using rhetorical devices to position the reader to accept the argument being made.
BASIC ESSAY STRUCTURES
Essays can be encapsulated in one simple structure:
Say what you are going to say.
Say it.
Say it again.
Aside from this, there is one thing that unifies all good writing - writers must believe in what they are writing. To write effectively, students need to find an aspect of their topic that means something to them. Simple regurgitation of information lends itself to writing that no reader would want to engage with.
Introductions
Introductions are frustrating at times - a good introduction is barely noticed, but a bad one stands out and causes the whole essay to fall apart. The introduction sets the direction for your essay by providing the reader with your thesis and the main focus points for your essay. The thesis statement must be clear and unambiguous.
Example Sport has played an important role in Western society since ancient times. From the Greek olympics, to the Roman Coloseum to the medieval jousts, sports have captured the hearts of minds of people and inspired them with feats of himan ability. In recent times, sport has become a multi-billion dollar enterprise capturing audiences globally. In light of this, we must question whether or not sport is simply pure entertainment. Through a close analysis of the various social impacts of sport, it will be shown that it performs a more questionable function, one that distracts the populace and makes individuals apathetic towards issues that really do matter.
The Body
The body of the essay is where the real argument lies. The mark of good paragraphing is clarity, evidence and relevance to the argument. The features of effective paragraphs are as follows:
This framework might help students improve their paragraph and their essay structures.
Topic sentence:this sentence tells the reader the point your paragraph is trying to make.
Supporting detail: this includes supporting argument and evidence.
Transition: this phrase or sentence links the argument of one paragraph with another. Transitions can either be at the start or at the end of a paragraph (note: the sample below does not have a transition because it has been written in isolation).
Example The spectacle of sport has had the same effect today as did the gladiator contests of Ancient Rome: it distracts people from issues of real importance. No one can honestly say that the result of a sporting contest is of any enormous importance, although the salaries of sports stars might have us believe that their efforts stack up with those of pediatricians, teachers or builders. The perception of sport's importance and its power to capture the imaginations of the people became a sticking point during the 1998 Australian federal election. Prime Minister John Howard became the object of the ire of the Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, who attacked him for calling the election during the Commonwealth Games and the AFL and NRL finals periods. Underpinning Beazley's attack was the belief that voters lose their appetite for change during major sporting events, especially given Australia's dominance of the Commonwealth Games[1] . Whether PM Howard was playing political games is irrelevant. What this demonstrates is the ability of the trivialities of sporting contexts to influence something as fundamental as our democracy.
Conclusions
Simple conclusions tend to mirror the introduction. The function of the conclusion is to wrap up the argument and to give a sense of finality to the essay. Better conclusion will provide a final comment and give the reader the sense that the writer has engaged with the argument. Effective conclusions can involve the writer discussing the implications of the content of the essay for wider issues and situations.
Analytical essays tend to appear more in English and in Literature. The purpose of the analytical essay is for the student to demonstrate an understanding of the finer points of text contruction. The kinds of arguments that arise in these types of essay force students to make connections between the generic and language features of texts and the context of the text (purpose, audience, socio-historical context). The implications of this for the construction of the essay is that each paragraph needs close textual reference. The body paragraph for an analytical essay should include the following information:
Topic sentence
Elaboration
Evidence
Analysis
Transition
While these points look like a formula, students should be wary of writing robotic paragraphs. Good writing has a sense of 'personal voice' and every paragraph in an analytical essay should be part of the construction of an argument.
Descriptive Essays
These types of essays appear in the hard sciences and in the social sciences. They usually involve describing the features of a system or of a sequence of events. The body paragraph for a descriptive essay should include the following information:
A description of the feature of the system.
An account of its function.
An account of how it fits with other parts of the system.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
For a number of reasons, essays are the most commonly used written genre in schools. Despite the dread many students feel for the word "essay", they are suprisingly straightforward to write. The habits that students need to value in order to improve their essay writing skills are:There are several common forms of essays, and some pointers for these will be outlined below. To begin, however, it is important to outline some of the basic features that will help students to make a start in their writing.
One very important point to remember is that essays are not narratives. Where successful narratives work by strategically withholding information from the reader, essays work through clear, unambigious language that using rhetorical devices to position the reader to accept the argument being made.
BASIC ESSAY STRUCTURES
Essays can be encapsulated in one simple structure:Aside from this, there is one thing that unifies all good writing - writers must believe in what they are writing. To write effectively, students need to find an aspect of their topic that means something to them. Simple regurgitation of information lends itself to writing that no reader would want to engage with.
Introductions
Example
Sport has played an important role in Western society since ancient times. From the Greek olympics, to the Roman Coloseum to the medieval jousts, sports have captured the hearts of minds of people and inspired them with feats of himan ability. In recent times, sport has become a multi-billion dollar enterprise capturing audiences globally. In light of this, we must question whether or not sport is simply pure entertainment. Through a close analysis of the various social impacts of sport, it will be shown that it performs a more questionable function, one that distracts the populace and makes individuals apathetic towards issues that really do matter.
The Body
The body of the essay is where the real argument lies. The mark of good paragraphing is clarity, evidence and relevance to the argument. The features of effective paragraphs are as follows:
Example
The spectacle of sport has had the same effect today as did the gladiator contests of Ancient Rome: it distracts people from issues of real importance. No one can honestly say that the result of a sporting contest is of any enormous importance, although the salaries of sports stars might have us believe that their efforts stack up with those of pediatricians, teachers or builders. The perception of sport's importance and its power to capture the imaginations of the people became a sticking point during the 1998 Australian federal election. Prime Minister John Howard became the object of the ire of the Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, who attacked him for calling the election during the Commonwealth Games and the AFL and NRL finals periods. Underpinning Beazley's attack was the belief that voters lose their appetite for change during major sporting events, especially given Australia's dominance of the Commonwealth Games[1] . Whether PM Howard was playing political games is irrelevant. What this demonstrates is the ability of the trivialities of sporting contexts to influence something as fundamental as our democracy.
Conclusions
Simple conclusions tend to mirror the introduction. The function of the conclusion is to wrap up the argument and to give a sense of finality to the essay. Better conclusion will provide a final comment and give the reader the sense that the writer has engaged with the argument. Effective conclusions can involve the writer discussing the implications of the content of the essay for wider issues and situations.
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TYPES OF ESSAYS
Analytical Essays
Analytical essays tend to appear more in English and in Literature. The purpose of the analytical essay is for the student to demonstrate an understanding of the finer points of text contruction. The kinds of arguments that arise in these types of essay force students to make connections between the generic and language features of texts and the context of the text (purpose, audience, socio-historical context). The implications of this for the construction of the essay is that each paragraph needs close textual reference. The body paragraph for an analytical essay should include the following information:
- Topic sentence
- Elaboration
- Evidence
- Analysis
- Transition
While these points look like a formula, students should be wary of writing robotic paragraphs. Good writing has a sense of 'personal voice' and every paragraph in an analytical essay should be part of the construction of an argument.Descriptive Essays
These types of essays appear in the hard sciences and in the social sciences. They usually involve describing the features of a system or of a sequence of events. The body paragraph for a descriptive essay should include the following information:
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